Sticks and Stones
by StarWarrior72
Summary: Luke was raised by Emperor Palpatine for the sole purpose of bribing Vader, but perhaps a little more thought should have gone into his care.
1. Chapter 1

"Ah, Lord Vader, I'm so glad you could make it," Emperor Palpatine sneered at his apprentice.

"The attack on my fleet was your doing, Master," Vader snarled under his breath.

"Yes, yes, it was indeed."

"I suppose it was a test, then." Vader was unable to keep the exasperation out of his voice. There were times he almost hated Palpatine more than Obi-Wan. At least Obi-Wan had had the courage and honesty to try to kill him directly.

"That is correct, Lord Vader."

"Did I pass?" He tried to muster at least a little bit of curiosity. Since Padme and the child had died, he hadn't felt the need to survive. He hardly cared about physical comfort anymore. As such, he didn't have much of a reason to worry about passing.

"I believe that you did. Congratulations."

Vader sighed inwardly, there was no point asking what that meant. It just meant that he wouldn't be punished for a failure.

"Wouldn't you like to know what your reward will be?" The Emperor's sneer became more obvious on his hideous and twisted face.

"I have learned better than to think that you would ever seek to reward me."

"Well, think again," The Emperor turned to some of his red guards, "Fetch the boy!"

Vader tipped his head to one side in confusion. What boy could his master possibly be talking about? He had never been especially close with a male other than Obi-Wan, and he had been dead for almost seven years.

The Emperor looked past Vader, "Good. Come here, Boy."

Vader turned to see a pale, blond boy stumble forward as one of the red robed guards hit him in the small of the back with the blunt end of a stun-stick. The child threw a glare at the guard and continued into the room, gazing at the floor. When he felt that he was safe from the guard, he looked up.

The first things Vader recognized about the boy were his blue eyes. Slowly the rest of his face registered too. Vader started to turn away, to ask his master how torment and the reminder of his failure to his family was a reward, when the boy's eyes opened wider.

"Father? Is that you?" the child asked hopefully.

Vader stared at his master in confusion.

"He is yours, my apprentice. Go to him, why don't you? Make him happy. Look at him, he has waited his whole life to meet you."

Vader turned back to the child who was now gazing at him in a mixture of hope and fear.

"Father?" he asked again, more doubtfully.

Vader moved to the boy in a daze. The child stood still for a moment, and then started to race to his father. As the boy got close, Vader knelt on the floor to catch his son in his arms.

"Father! He promised you'd come back for me, but I was starting to think you wouldn't!"

Vader ran one hand through his son's hair and smiled at the soft texture of the boy's hair as it slid through the real fingers of his left hand. He could feel the child's small frame shake as he started to cry tears of happiness into his father's tunic.

_Luke, my son, my baby. Oh, child, I thought I'd lost you. Everyone told me you were dead. I'm sorry I didn't come looking for you, I'm sorry you grew up not knowing if I wanted you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry._

He looked up from the child in his arms at his master. It didn't make sense for the Emperor to have gone to the trouble of hiding Luke for so long and then just to give him back when Vader passed such a simple test. There had to be strings attached.

"Do you like him?" The Emperor put on his old doting tones.

"He is everything I've ever wanted," Vader answered honestly.

"Would you give your life for him?"

"In a heartbeat."

"So you would do anything to protect him, then?"

"Of course. Of course I would," Vader looked back down at the small form in his arms.

"Good, good. You will be allowed to see him when you are not on missions, but if you fail me, it's the boy who will pay the price."

Vader nodded. That made more sense. Give him everything he'd ever wanted, and then threaten to take it away.

"How has he been raised?"

"The boy's Force connection was severed the moment I found him. He has grown up in a small series of chambers near my own. His droid caregivers have raised him for his whole life. These last two years he has been attending an imperial school in a neighboring building," the Emperor droned.

"May I take him to my chambers to speak with him privately?" Vader stood with the boy in his arms.

"Yes, but you should know that he is capable of walking." Palpatine sneered.

Vader put his son down and took one small hand in his own. He led the boy down several halls until he reached a turbo-lift that carried them to a landing platform. He climbed into the driver's seat of his speeder and Luke scrambled up beside him. As Vader flew through the heavy Coruscant traffic, his son's eyes never left his face.

Finally, Vader turned to the boy, "Luke, I appreciate that this is new to you, it's new to me as well, but would you please stop staring at me? I feel like an animal in a zoo."

"Sorry," Luke smiled sheepishly and directed his attention to the air traffic streams all around him.

Suddenly something occurred to Vader, "Would you like to stay with me tonight? We could go back to your quarters and get your clothes if you like."

Luke instantly forgot about not staring at his father. Spinning back to the older man, he nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Can I? Please?"

"Why would I make the offer if I wasn't willing to go through with it? Of course you can," Vader turned the speeder sharply and Luke gave a little shriek of laughter.

Seeing his son's enjoyment of something he loved doing, Vader spun the speeder. Any normal citizen would have been arrested, but being a Dark Lord of the Sith did have a few perks, such as being allowed to do remarkably stupid things.

Luke shrieked again and gripped the edge of the seat. As they neared the Imperial Palace, Vader stopped the barrel roll and asked his son to show him where to land. Luke stared at the Palace looming ahead of him and started counting under his breath.

"There," he said, pointing.

"Okay, here we go." Vader flew down to the nearest landing platform and hopped out of the speeder. He ran around the ship and swept his son up and put him on the floor beside him. Luke grinned and kept a tight grip on his father's hand to lead him to his own quarters.

Vader allowed his son to lead him as the boy babbled happily. The halls around him blended together and all he could see was his son's eager smile. Finally, Luke turned down a maintenance hall and fell to his hands and knees to show his father through a storage cupboard door.

After crawling through a few meters of dark corridor, they emerged in a small bedroom. Luke stood up and Vader followed. Immediately Luke bounced over to the bed, wholly energised by his father's arrival. Vader followed his son over to and sat on the bed as Luke scrambled to retrieve everything he would need to stay at his father's home overnight.

Luke pulled a bag from under the bed, "I've been ready forever. Since Emperor Palpatine told me you were coming back."

"And how long has that been, exactly?"

"I dunno, a couple of years?" Luke shrugged and slung the backpack over his shoulder.

"In that case, you should probably check that the clothes will fit." Vader laughed lightly.

"Oh, yeah, I should," Luke dropped the backpack on his bed beside his father and pulled out a shirt that was at least five sizes too small.

"You're still growing, Luke. Better find some clothes that actually will fit." Vader smiled and sat back on the bed.

As he looked around his son's room the first thing he noticed was how monochromatic it all was. The walls were dark gray, the blankets on his bed were black, and the lighting cast a yellowish haze over all of it. There were no windows.

"Would you show me the rest of your quarters after, Luke?" Vader asked curiously. These surroundings weren't much of a home for a child. He hoped that one of the other rooms had some windows.

"Sure, but they're not that different."

"Are they really all this dark?"

"Yeah, but I don't really care. I don't even remember where I lived before he brought me here. You kinda get used to it," Luke pulled another shirt out of his closet and shoved it into his bag with very limited care.

"But you shouldn't have to get used to it," now that he was a parent again, Vader was instantly feeling very protective of his son.

"I really don't mind. It's not a problem for me," Luke proceeded to start trying to shove a pair of pants into the small bag. When he was done, he hopped up and led his father through the few corridors that made up his home. After his father had glanced into a small playroom (which had miraculously been filled with monochromatic toys), a small living room, and a kitchen, Luke headed back to the speeder with his father.

To start the speeder, Vader sent it straight towards the Palace at full speed then guided it up the wall to flip over completely before righting itself. As his son screamed in terror and the sound turned into a laugh, Vader smiled. He could certainly get used to having a son.


	2. Chapter 2

"We're staying here?" Luke asked in amazement, staring at his father's castle.

"Yes," Vader landed the speeder on his landing pad and climbed out. Luke scrambled out too and pulled his backpack out from behind the seat. Instead of taking the extra few moments it would have taken to go around the ship, he went down on his hands and knees to crawl under it instead.

Vader laughed as his son crawled out. He bent and pulled the boy into his arms, "Why did you go under the speeder? I think that it would have taken less time to go around it on your legs, the way your body was designed to move."

"Probably," Luke shrugged, then feigned anger, "Geez, I gotta have a reason for everything?"

"No, I guess you don't really. Good point," Vader put his son down. Luke's hand immediately found his father's again. Vader smiled and led his son into his castle.

"I don't have a spare room or anything, this is a complete surprise to me."

"I don't mind!" Luke said happily.

"That's good." Vader said gently.

"Where're we gonna go?"

"Let's go to the living room," Vader said. He led his son into his living room. Luke leapt onto the couch and Vader sat next to him.

"Are you okay, Daddy?"

"I'm fine, Luke. No, I'm better than fine. I have you. Everything is perfect." Vader pulled his son close for a hug.

"Daddy, you're not fine." Luke said in concern. "Something's hurting you!"

"I'm fine. Just a little stiff from a battle."

"Why've you got to fight?"

"That's what I do, Luke. It's my job." Vader assured his son as best he could.

"I don't like it."

"I'm all right. How are you? Who are you, Luke?" Vader asked.

"I'm your son! Who do you think I am?" Luke laughed innocently.

"Luke, you are my son. It's what you are, not who. Who are you?"

"I'm Luke. I'm your son, and I'm… I'm in grade two. I can play a bit of xylophone. I um…. I err… I love you!" Luke faltered, unsure of what to say.

Vader smiled at his son, who was snuggled close against his side. It was enough explicit information for now, he decided.

As Luke gushed enthusiasm to his father, Vader's dark heart slowly being changed by the light he willingly allowed to flow through it. The light of his life. The light that was Luke.

"Daddy, wanna play a game?"

Vader blinked down at the child, who looked up at him with such hope that he couldn't refuse, "Sure. Do you have a game in mind?"

"No. I've never really had anyone to play with before. Can you teach me a game?"

Vader stared at the child another moment, trying to force his mind to find a game, "I don't know any games that don't require the Force."

"Oh," Luke said softly.

"It's not fair he cut it from you."

"I guess not. But what can we do about that?"

Vader looked at the little boy snuggled against himself, "I've never done it before, but I could try to return you to it."

"Isn't that Jedi for," Luke paused, looking nervous, "Kill me?"

Vader fought down a smile, "I guess it might be, but I don't mean it like that. No, I suppose some would say that I should've said I'd return it to you, but using the Force is more like belonging to it. Just a personal quirk, you understand?"

Luke smiled, "I'm gonna get used to those aren't I?"

Vader allowed himself to laugh, "I suppose I am quirky."

"I didn't mean it like that, Daddy."

"I know you didn't, honey. Now," he stood up and then knelt before his son, "Let me take your head, like so," he took the child's chin in both hands marveling at the soft skin, "And trust me as much as you possibly can, alright?"

Luke nodded slightly, and Vader caught his head again.

"Now hold very still."

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the boy's consciousness, bright, intelligent, reaching for a power it knew it possessed, blocked by darkness. Then he imagined the boy's light spreading, intensifying, cutting through the darkness like a thousand tiny white lightsabers. At last, they seemed to cut through the darkness, and he allowed his magnification to leave, letting the brightness sink to less blinding levels. But they didn't sink as low as they had been, and he noticed a detour in the path of the Force, a fork in the road, so to speak. The fork pointed to himself, to his own imaginary power, no matter which way he tilted the imaginary scape.

He brushed that thought aside and returned to the real world to find his son holding his elbows with both hands, his own eyes tightly shut.

Vader smiled, "That's good, Luke. You can open your eyes now."

Luke opened his eyes and blinked around the room, "Okay. Now what?"

Vader felt a stab of worry, "You do feel a bit of a difference, right?"

Luke shook his head as if he was trying to jiggle all the pieces together, "No, not really."

Vader bit back a curse, "Okay, I'm going to look inside your head again, all right? I won't hurt you, and you don't need to focus as hard this time."

"Okay."

Again, Vader looked inside his son, and found the glowing pulse of his Force sensitivity, still apparently magnified by his father's presence.

He opened his eyes, "I don't understand. You clearly are Force sensitive now, just as clearly as that you weren't before. Here, Luke, I'm going to try something. I'll try to send you a thought with the Force, alright? It's advanced even for a fully trained Jedi, but I think you can manage."

Luke seemed very nervous, but he didn't protest.

_I love you, only son._

_I know you do, Daddy. I love you too. I love you __**this **__much_, Luke answered, sending another wave of blinding light.

"Okay, Luke. Clearly you are Force sensitive. Are you sure you don't feel any different?"

Luke thought about it for a moment, then shook his head, saying brightly, "No."

Vader smiled, "Maybe being Force sensitive doesn't make you as different as I thought it did. Our next problem is that all of the games require some training. Can I teach you a bit first?"

"Yeah! Sure," Luke said enthusiastically.

"Okay, lesson number one," Vader started, but was cut off by his son's unsettlingly intense gaze, "Luke, you really need to learn not to do that. It would scare anyone away."

"Sorry."

"Lesson number one, never tell Palpatine I did that."


	3. Chapter 3

Vader had a wonderful time with his son, teaching everything he could think of, his son's questions allowing him to fill in the gaps, but he was finally called away to fight for the Empire. He reluctantly left his son with the Emperor once more. Upon returning, he was desperate to see his son again.

"Master, where's my son?" he asked, as soon as they had finished debriefing.

"I'm not certain that you were successful enough," Palpatine answered.

Vader felt himself begin to shake with anger, "It was practically a suicide mission! It's a miracle I was able to bring back as many soldiers as I did!"

Palpatine looked at him doubtfully.

"Just tell me where my son is!" Vader snarled.

"He's in school, of course," Palpatine said disdainfully.

"_**Thank you**_," Vader said icily, turning to leave.

He forced himself to calm down on the walk to the school, not wanting his son to see that side of him. Heavens knew they didn't get enough time together as it was. There was no point in making it worse for the boy, giving time to anger instead of bonding.

When he reached the school, the playground was empty, but he could hear something that sounded like crying.

"Hello? Is anyone here?"

No response came, but the sobs continued.

"Hello?" perhaps they just hadn't heard the first time.

Still no answer, and Vader decided to pass through the playground and find his son, but the mournful crying made him stop in his tracks. No child should be hurt badly enough to feel the need to cry like that, and besides, it sounded almost like…

"Luke?"

No one answered, and Vader reached into the Force for his son's beacon. It pulsed back at him reassuringly, but not as strongly as usual, and with a deep blue shade to the edges of it.

Vader followed the sad pulsing to a large bush, which seemed solid until he brushed aside a few leaves. There, sitting in the darkness underneath, crying, sat his only son.

"Luke? What's wrong?"

Luke didn't seem to hear him, only curling tighter and continuing to cry.

Vader pushed his way into the bush, sitting down next to his boy and putting an arm around him, "Luke? Are you all right?"

Luke finally seemed to acknowledge his father's presence, his eyes focusing on the older man's knee, which rested against his own.

"Dad."

"So," Vader tried to joke, "I've been away for a while, and we've got a lot to catch up on. Can we start with why you're crying under a bush when you're probably supposed to be in class?"

"They said you weren't coming back," Luke divulged, "They said that you'd just dropped by so you wouldn't have to feel guilty forever, and that now you'd left me, and you weren't coming back. They said you never wanted a son, and Palpatine was stupid to have kept me as bait, because you wouldn't care if I died."

Vader fought to bite back the instinctive fury he felt at those words, "Who told you that?"

"My classmates. They said that I shouldn't stay with Palpatine. They said I should run away and try to find a life someplace else. They said… they said I should never have stayed in the first place, that all I've ever done is avoid finding anyone who really cares about me."

"I really care about you, Luke."

"I know you do, and I tried to tell them that, but now they're denying that you even exist."

"You know I exist."

Luke looked very sad, "It's just been so long since I last saw you… I almost started to believe it was just a nice dream."

"Well I'm glad you would consider it a nice dream, but I really am here for you. I'm sorry I haven't been able to make it back in a few months, it's just been disaster after disaster."

"I know. And I watch the news and try to tell myself that's why I haven't been able to go home, but that only makes it worse, because the news never says anything about you, and I'm not sure it would even if you were killed."

"I suppose it probably wouldn't, but Palpatine would tell you."

"Why?" Luke howled, "Just out of the goodness of his heart?"

"No," Vader said, lowering his voice, realizing how cruel his train of thought had been, "To kick you out. He wouldn't go on paying for your life if there was no use for you. Well, I suppose he might try to return your Force sensitivity to you and train you."

"Oh, of course."

"I'm sorry, that was insensitive. I just wanted to tell you that you would know."

"Dad, what would happen if something happened to you? Palpatine certainly wouldn't just harbour me for no reason. You're my galaxy, what would happen?"

_It's like before, with Padmé, but she could at least care for herself. Luke is truly dependant. And… I don't know how to answer his questions. I don't know what he should do if I die. I don't know where he would be safe. Since the Purges… I don't have any friends I could safely leave him with. I should never have killed Obi-Wan. I should have kept him prisoner, but available if worse came to worst_.

"I don't know. We'll work on that, all right? I hope we can avoid any major emergencies, so I can stay with you longer this time."

Luke nodded, "I'd like that."

"Now, first things first, I think we have some classmates who are even less sensitive than I am to deal with."

Luke grinned up at Anakin, "Yeah, I guess we do."


	4. Chapter 4

"Come on, Luke. We're going on a mission."

Luke sat up and stared up at his father, "Okay. I'll grab my pack."

Anakin nodded absently, and the boy ran off and scooped up his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder.

"Okay, all set to go!"

Anakin smiled, scooping his son up, "Alright. I've already loaded my things."

"Where're you going?"

"Alderaan. Force knows I'm not equipped to deal with ruling an empire."

"Okay," Luke said as his father boarded a shuttle, Luke still held close, "Where're we going? You've gotta drop me off with the emperor, don't you?"

Anakin shook his head, "No, Luke. There's no one to leave you with."

"Huh?"

"Palpatine is dead."

"Dead?" Luke asked, his voice seeming very small. Anakin was reminded that Palpatine had been the most consistent figure in his child's life, even if not in the kindest way possible.

"I killed him. He's done such harm to the galaxy, and last time I returned… in fact, I had failed. He made it clear that he would torture you, and I couldn't allow that."

"You killed for me?" Luke asked, awestruck.

"Don't sound so startled. I've killed many times, and I did this for the galaxy. But, yes," Anakin consented, "you were uppermost in my mind as I did it."

Luke seemed torn between being scared by the statement about having killed, and flattered by his father's protectiveness. Anakin imagined that he couldn't see the thoughts panning across the boy's face.

"I think you'll like it on Alderaan. It's very peaceful, and the rulers have a daughter about your age, so you'll have a playmate. I need to stay for a while symbolically, but after the first couple of days, I should be finished the real work, and we can spend some time together."

"Yay!"

"I knew you'd be glad to be coming, not left behind to deal with your idiot classmates."

"What's it gonna be like there? What's the princess like? Does she like playing around, or is she all boring and proper?"

Anakin laughed, "I don't know. I don't know anything at all about the family," his face fell slightly, "All I know is that her father was your mother's close friend," he forced himself to smile again, "I knew him too, and he's a good person. I trust him before any other senator."

_If only Obi-Wan had been a senator and not a Jedi. I would have been able to trust him with this. Hells, even as a Jedi, I could've passed this off to him, or at least asked for his help. If only I had never listened to Palpatine._

"Daddy? Are you okay? You've got a kind of… ways away look."

Anakin smiled again, "I'm fine. I was just thinking about how much easier this would all be if your mother were here to help us."

Luke squeezed his father tightly, "Was she from Alderaan?"

"No."

"Then how did she know their senator?"

"She was a senator herself, and the two planets are not that different."

"Oh," Luke said, "Daddy, you've never said where you're from."

Anakin sighed, "I'm not from anywhere, Luke. I don't have a home planet."

"Whadya mean? You must be from somewhere!"

"From what my mother told me, I was born on a ship in deep space."

"A ship? Was there a medcenter to help?"

"No, probably not."

"Why'd your mom have you there? Wasn't it dangerous?"

"She told me it's a wonder we both survived, but she didn't have a lot of choice in the matter."

"Why not?"

Anakin sincerely wished the conversation hadn't followed this path.

"Luke, my whole life I've belonged to someone. My mother was a slave, and I was born into slavery. Our master had a lot of slaves, and wouldn't have cared too much if we'd died. Our insurance would easily have covered their losses."

"Palpatine had slaves," Luke said softly.

Anakin began to worry that Luke had been raised to believe slavery was the way of the galaxy.

"I hated it. I built a machine to free them. Every time one came to clean my rooms, I'd set them free, and I'd tell them to wait as long as they possibly could before running away."

"I'm glad to hear that, Luke. I'm proud of you."

Luke smiled, "But why didn't you pick someplace to be from?"

"It changes rapidly. Jedi aren't supposed to have a lot of possessions, so I didn't exactly have somewhere that held all my belongings, and home has always been with the people I love, no matter where they are."

"But what about lately? You said you haven't loved anyone since you haven't had Mom."

"Luke, self-imposed exile, and a constant feeling of loneliness is not a fun way to live. Never do it to yourself."

"Oh," Luke said, sounding worried, "You're all right now, though, right?"

Anakin nodded, putting the ship into hyperspace, "I'm much better now that I have you."

"Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"You loved Mom a lot, didn't you?"

Anakin sighed, "I did."

"People always love the person they're married to, right?"

"Well, that's the hope."

"Sometimes it doesn't happen?"

"Occasionally, but what were you going to ask?"

"Daddy, sometimes people find someone new they love. Are you gonna do that?"

"You mean getting remarried?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"No. Never."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yes."

"Why? Don't you want a mommy?"

"Of course I want a mommy. But I want my mommy. Otherwise, it's just like saying that she's replaceable. I don't want to think that you think that Mom's replaceable."

"I don't, I promise you. And you'll never be replaceable either. Never. I'll keep you safe with all the strength I have, all right?"

Luke smiled, holding out one hand, "Deal."


End file.
